Just 1 KY county remains at a high COVID community level. Here’s the latest on cases
More than 100 Kentucky counties now have low COVID-19 community levels, and only one has a high level, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, updated Thursday.
At the governor’s weekly press conference broadcast from Frankfort Thursday, Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack said the state is “solidly now in the living with COVID phase” of the pandemic.
Currently, less than 300 COVID-19 patients remain in Kentucky hospitals, and there are fewer than 15 on ventilators. Stack noted that’s an eighth of Kentucky’s all-time peak for hospitalized COVID-19 patients and one 36th of the all-time high for positive people on breathing machines.
Still, that does not mean “that COVID is gone,” Stack stressed.
“We still sadly announce 60 to 80 deaths every week from COVID,” he said, referring to the Bluegrass State’s coronavirus death toll. As of Oct. 10, 17,111 Kentuckians had died from COVID-19.
“It’ll still be the third leading cause of death in Kentucky this year, and we still have more than 300 variants that the World Health Organization tracks across the world, a subset of those are ones of particular concern,” Stack added.
He encouraged those in the public to get their vaccine or updated COVID-19 booster.
Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared updated COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for children as young as 5 years old, and updated boosters for people aged 12 and older more than a month ago.
Public health experts are urging individuals to get vaccinated ahead of peak flu season, when severe flu cases put more people in the hospital and strain health care systems. Despite this, only about half of Americans say they plan to get the flu vaccine this year.
“That is the single most important thing you can do to keep yourself safe from severe illness and death,” Stack said of getting a COVID-19 booster.
COVID-19 community levels in Kentucky
One hundred and three of Kentucky’s counties are experiencing low levels of COVID-19.
As defined by the CDC, the metric generally assesses the prevalence of COVID-19 in a county and its effect on local health care infrastructure. Specifically, it measures new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people (seven-day total), new coronavirus admissions per 100,000 people (seven-day total) and the percent of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients (seven-day average).
As of Oct. 13, Letcher County was the only Kentucky county at a high community level. Sixteen others are at medium, per CDC data.
Kentucky reported 77 new deaths during the previous week, the CDC indicated Thursday. There were 8,585 new cases, with a statewide positivity rate between 8 to 9.9%.
Fayette County is among the 103 counties at low. The CDC data puts the county’s positivity rate at 6.67%. There were 156 new cases during the latest reporting period and fewer than 10 new deaths.
.png "Kentucky_COVID-19_Community_Levels (15).png")
The CDC recommends masking in public when a county is at a high community level, and if you are at high risk of getting very sick, consider avoiding non-essential indoor activities in public where you could be exposed.
How to get your COVID-19 booster for free in Fayette County
The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department announced Tuesday on its social media accounts it will offer a special clinic Oct. 20 to administer free COVID-19 booster shots.
The clinic will take place at the Lexington Senior Center at 195 Life Lane from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. You can register online. Additionally, anyone who needs assistance signing-up can call 859-899-2222.
The health department will also continue to offer same-day vaccination appointments, LFCHD spokesman Kevin Hall confirmed.
“We will provide the vaccine by same-day appointment Monday, Wednesday and Thursday in our clinic,” provided that it has doses available, he wrote in an email to the Herald-Leader earlier last week.
You can run a general search for vaccines near you at vaccines.gov/search.
Both the LFCHD and UK HealthCare told the Herald-Leader they would be offering the bivalent booster to children ages 5 to 11 once the shot becomes readily available and all regulatory obligations met.
Do you have a question about COVID-19 in Kentucky for our service journalism team? We’d like to hear from you. Fill out our Know Your Kentucky form or email ask@herald-leader.com.